


Day 30 - Wound Reveal (27.2)

by fanfictiongreenirises



Series: Whumptober 2020 [30]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Blood and Injury, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Hurt Dick Grayson, No Man's Land (DCU)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27281911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfictiongreenirises/pseuds/fanfictiongreenirises
Summary: Sequel to Day 27. Bruce goes looking for Dick.No 30. NOW WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?Wound Reveal| Ignoring an Injury | Internal Organ Injury
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne
Series: Whumptober 2020 [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947217
Comments: 28
Kudos: 136





	Day 30 - Wound Reveal (27.2)

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of you were keen on a sequel so ^~^ (This can be read without reading Day 27 tho)
> 
> Disclaimer: i don't own dc

THIS FANFICTION IS HOSTED ON **ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN** , WHERE YOU CAN READ IT FOR **FREE**. IF YOU’RE READING THIS ON A DIFFERENT WEBSITE, IT WAS POSTED THERE **WITHOUT** THE AUTHOR’S CONSENT.

Bruce was out of his league.

But when had that mattered?

Gotham was still in pieces, and that wouldn’t be fixed overnight. But this storm was making things much worse – power had been carefully supplied in short amounts, mainly to the hospitals and the suburbs, but it was out again now, and repairing the power lines was just another job on the ever-increasing list of things Gotham needed.

And on top of everything, Tim was gone. Bruce hadn’t realised just how much he’d come to rely on Tim until he’d left Gotham. It’d served to truly drive home the fact that Tim had a _home_ , that he had a life and family outside of Robin.

Bruce wondered what he’d do, if he lived in one of the suburbs with a wife, and if Dick – perhaps Jason, too – were both still living with him. Would he pick up and move to Central City?

Another sheet of rain slammed into the Batmobile, driving away all other thoughts from Bruce’s mind. Barbara was still at the GCPD, working until Jim dragged her away from the computer, but somehow she still found a way to be the eyes and ears of Batman that she’d always been.

“I can’t contact N,” she now said, voice hushed slightly. Barbara would alternate between speaking and texting. “He was in a pretty unstable part of the city last I checked his tracker, but now there’s nothing.”

Bruce frowned. Dick had come to Gotham to help out right after the earthquake, when Bruce had still been missing, and so far Bruce hadn’t been able to tell him he could leave. Having Dick here beside him, versus the need to have him in Bludhaven where so many of Gotham’s inhabitants had flocked to, were warring within him. And so far, Bruce had been selfish.

Reports of crime in Bludhaven had risen, as the city started to bend beneath the weight of so many new occupants. Dick was already itching to go back; Bruce would speak to him tonight, once he found him.

“Give me his last known location,” Bruce said.

Seconds later, the Batmobile monitor pinged.

* * *

Barbara had pointed him to an area around Gotham’s public school. It was still standing – WE had renovated it a few years ago, along with the rest of the public buildings in the city – but there was another structure beside it that was complete rubble.

The rain and thunder made anything Bruce could’ve called out to get Dick’s attention completely useless. It was entirely likely that Dick had been unreachable because his comms had been damaged by this infernal weather, or otherwise affected by the lack of power, though Bruce had ensured that they were able to operate using the cell towers.

Bruce got out of the car anyway, and was immediately soaked. He had to go on foot now, to see if he could find any tracks that would lead him to Dick. Bruce forced down the little niggling in the pit of his stomach that feared the worst.

“Nightwing!” he yelled as loud as he could.

The signs showed that Dick had last been seen at the front of what used to be a private law firm. It had shown off Gotham’s old architecture, with giant concrete pillars at the front. Now, it too was reduced to a pile of rubble.

That was when Bruce spotted a batarang on the ground.

He ran to it, and picked it up with none of the usually finesse he’d typically show it. It was clear that the weather conditions had washed away any sort of evidence of where it’d been – there was no point in wasting time handling it delicately.

_“Nightwing!”_ Bruce shouted again, cupping his hands over his mouth.

He could barely hear _himself_ over this rain.

It was at that moment that some higher power shined down on Bruce, because the rain calmed to a steady patter. It was still rather heavy, for Gotham standards, but it wasn’t drowning out each and every noise in Bruce’s surroundings.

Bruce tried once more. “Nightwing!” he called.

Maybe Dick wasn’t here. Maybe Bruce was wasting his time here—

That was when Bruce heard the faintest of sounds, something that he wouldn’t’ve been able to pick up on had it not been for the lull in rainfall. He strained his ears, trying to figure out what direction it’d come from.

There was another cough again, and Bruce _wasn’t_ imagining it.

He darted forward, towards the rubble, and called out Dick’s name.

The coughs were louder now, coming from beneath piles of rock. Bruce had no idea who was under there, or how he was going to get them out, but he was going to do better than his best.

* * *

It took ten minutes for what was left of Gotham’s search and rescue team to show up. They didn’t come in a blaze of flashing lights and sirens anymore – that was the perfect way to get looted.

Instead, they quietly but efficiently skidded to a halt beside the Batmobile. The rain had picked up once more; the firetruck sent mud all over the place as it stopped.

“There’s someone under there,” Batman said the moment they’d gotten out. “Adult. Pinned under the rubble. Their heat signature indicates that they’ve lost too much blood. You need to—”

“Alright, Mr Batman,” this kid must be new, with how tall he was, “thanks for the info. Now please stay out of our way.”

Bruce knew he didn’t have enough equipment – or people – to help out here. But his nerves were frayed as he watched them work, carefully removing bits of concrete and trying to get to the figure underneath.

There was nothing – apart from the batarang – that indicated that it was Dick. But something in Bruce told him it was his son under that rubble. He didn’t like to listen to his gut, not for things like this, but his feet wouldn’t move. And besides, even if this was a civilian, they would need assistance. He couldn’t just leave now.

It took fifteen minutes for them to remove all the debris. It took another three for them to determine that it was, in fact, Nightwing.

Bruce didn’t wait that long – he darted over the moment it was stable enough. Beneath the piles of rock, dirt, and concrete, there lay a figure largely clothed in black, but with visible stripes of blue showing.

It was too dark to make out anything else. Dick was lying in a giant puddle, but the streets around him were coming out a brown-ish shade, almost red. Bruce couldn’t tell whether that was from the dirt and debris, or if it was blood.

“Nightwing,” Bruce whispered, crouching by Dick’s head. He could feel the search and rescue team watching them, in his peripheral vision, but he paid them no heed. “Nightwing. Please.”

Bruce couldn’t see whether Dick’s eyes were open or not, and with this many onlookers, he couldn’t check, either. They’d freed his arm, but his lower half was still stuck underneath – two of their team were now discussing how they were going to go about doing that.

Bruce pressed his finger to Dick’s pulse. It was barely there. He had to keep Dick awake, had to keep him conscious.

Bruce shook Dick’s shoulder – the one that hadn’t been trapped. “Nightwing,” he said again, voice now bordering on desperate. He didn’t know what he would do if Dick didn’t wake up.

There had to be internal injuries somewhere. Dick’s head seemed fine – there were no hard knocks, no bumps on his scalp. Bruce kept one hand beneath Dick’s jaw, and the other pressed along his body gently, trying to see if he could find any obvious injuries.

Dick let out a noise when Bruce’s fingers touched his ribs, and Bruce pulled his hand back immediately. He didn’t want to mess with that if Dick’s ribs were broken – punctured lungs were nothing to joke about, especially in Dick’s current state.

That was when Dick stirred. His head tilted to the side a little and he faced Bruce. “B?” he said, voice barely there.

“Nightwing,” Bruce said, relief colouring the word. “Report.”

Bruce could see Dick visibly trying to pull himself together. It was necessary, he knew – necessary both that Dick was conscious, and stayed that way, and necessary for Bruce to know any injuries that Dick had.

“Uh,” Dick said, swallowing dryly. “My leg.”

“Batman?”

Bruce glanced up at the woman peering down at him.

“We’re ready to move the rest of the rubble,” she said. “But you have to understand. He’s lost a lot of blood. There’s a piece of rebar sticking into his upper thigh, too.”

The meaning behind her words was clear – there was a high chance that Dick wouldn’t make it.

Bruce nodded, and with one last squeeze of Dick’s hand, he moved out of the way. The team swarmed in almost immediately, but Bruce’s eyes were on the giant pool of blood that was underneath Dick, and visible now because so much of the concrete had been moved out of the way.

They didn’t remove the rebar that was piercing Dick’s thigh grotesquely. Dick didn’t make a sound even as they sawed through it, and the lack of reaction hastened everyone’s movements all the more. It was either as a result of the weather, or the blood loss, but Dick’s skin was paler than Bruce had ever seen it, and there was a blueish tinge to his lips.

“He needs a hospital, Batman,” one of them said, but then his voice trailed off when he remembered the current state of Gotham’s hospitals.

Bruce ignored him, reaching forward and picking up Dick. He was lighter than he had any right to be, in Bruce’s arms. The piece of rebar had been shortened to some degree – he’d fit into the Batmobile with ease.

The most important thing to do now was get more blood into Dick’s body, and to get him warm. He was an ice cube where his skin touched Bruce.

Bruce slid him into the backseat of the Batmobile and climbed inside, setting the car to autopilot. It was rough going these days, with the rubble on the road, but the speed didn’t matter as long as Bruce was able start patching him up.

The heartbeat monitor was going crazy. Bruce didn’t know if Dick was going to make it, and quite frankly, he didn’t even want to consider that option. When he’d done all he could, had packed shock blankets around Dick’s freezing body and stemmed the blood flow as much as possible, and began giving him blood transfusions, Bruce finally fished out Dick’s hand from beneath all the layers piled on top of him. Physical contact had always given him comfort as a child; that had been another thing that hadn’t changed as Dick had grown older.

Alfred was in the Cave, working as fast as he could to ready the medical area. But for now, all Bruce could do was sit there holding Dick’s hand and watch the heart monitor.

**Author's Note:**

> in defence of the ending,, originally I was going to kill Dick off ^~^ 
> 
> Thanks for reading!! One day ~~more~~ left!!


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